City Council member Jerry Allen and other critics say such deals create a false perception that minority firms are getting larger pieces of contracts than they really are. The video above is from an October meeting of the council's Budget, Audit and Finance Committee.

“If you saw a general [contractor] pull that, that would be maybe the last time we do business with that general…because it would be viewed as rudeness,” said Allen, chairman of the committee.

City procurement director Mike Frosch and chief financial officer Jeanne Chipperfield said they'd look into putting some new safeguards in place. That didn't happen. I'm told something along those lines is now supposed to happen this month.